Want always-available wireless Net access? It will cost you

With Houston’s citywide Wi-Fi project delayed for at least 9 months while EarthLink gets its financial act together, it’s good to keep in mind that public, wireless Internet access is already available.

But it’s not necessarily inexpensive, ubiquitous, robust or easy to access. Sure, you can find free Wi-Fi if you are willing to hunt it down, but it’s not always there when you need it.

Basically, the wireless Internet landscape is fractured and often pricey — particularly if you want to always be able to get to the Internet. Here’s a roundup of the many ways you can get online without wires, and what it will cost you.

Commercial Wi-Fi hotspots — One of the most common ways to get to the Internet in untethered fashion is to find some business that offers a Wi-Fi connection. Restaurants, coffeeshops, hotels, bars and bookstores are common locations. Some provide free access; some require you buy something to get access; others are part of a network that charges a fee. For example, T-Mobile operates the Wi-Fi network for Starbucks’ stores, charging anywhere from $6 for 60 minutes to $40 per month for unlimited national access. There are several Web sites that help you find both free and fee-based hotspots, including JiWire, MSN WiFi Hotspots, hotspotr and WiFi411,among others.

Airports — Increasingly, airports are becoming reliable sources for Internet access, but whether their networks are free or require a fee varies widely. Generally, smaller airports tend to have free access, while larger ones — including Houston’s — charge. Every now and then, you’ll find free Wi-Fi in larger airports, such as Las Vegas McCarran or Charlotte Douglas. Fees at the Houston airports — where Sprint provides service — range from $9.95 for a 24-hour pass to $50 a month for unlimited access. Some airports are part of Wi-Fi hotspot networks such as Boingo Wireless, which charges $39 $21.95 a month for access at any of its participating locations [in North America]. If you’re in an airport that has a Continental Airlines President’s Club, you can often get a decent, free Wi-Fi signal by camping outside its front door.

Cellular broadband — The major cellular phone service providers all offer Internet access over their networks, though it’s much slower than Wi-Fi. Cell phones have browsers that are inferior to those found on personal computers (including the overhyped iPhone), but these companies also offer a way for PCs to access their networks, using Wireless LAN adapters. These adapters are available as PC-card or USB add-ons, though some computer makers build them in to notebooks aimed at businesses.

In general, cellular broadband is one of the most expensive ways to get online, with prices ranging from $30 to over $100 a month for unlimited data plans, depending on the hardware used for Internet access and where you can use the service. And that’s on top of any voice charges you may pay. For example, T-Mobile’s data plan for its Sidekick handhelds is $30 a month, or $50 a month for “Total Internet” using a handheld or PC. Sprint charges $60 a month for unlimited access using a PC. AT&T’s unlimited data package for personal PDA/cell phones like the Samsung BlackJack is $40 a month, while its unlimited PC card service is $60 a month. Apple’s iPhone on AT&T’s network uses a simplified pricing structure that varies based on voice minutes, but in general its unlimited data access adds about $20 to the cost of a comparable voice-only plan. Pricing fpr cell-phone data is notoriously confusing — for example, you may pay a large sum for data access, but still not have unlimited text messaging. Read the fine print.

If Houston’s Wi-Fi network comes to pass as envisioned, ubiquitous access would be reliably available for $20 a month. The question becomes — if wireless Net access is crucial to the way you work and/or live, what’s it worth to you? Chances are, you’re already paying a lot more than that if access is essential to what you do.

14 Responses

Is it possible to get dial-up internet to a laptop via a cell phone and bluetooth? Since you’re just calling a phone number, I’d think that it’s a way to bypass the charge-by-the-byte method of getting internet directly on your mobile phone, but I’m probably missing something in the bluetooth limitations.

It doesn’t seem to be publicized much, but one of the perks of having AT&T DSL (depends on your tier of service also) is free access to AT&T’s wi-fi network. This includes hotspots at McDonald’s and Barnes & Noble, among others.

The ideal would be to multiple devices anytime anywhere worldwide with no gotcha’s. That would include my laptop, my wife’s laptop, my iPhone, and any new devices that we may acquire such as a WiFi enabled iPod.

The cellular networks are expensive and are tied to just one device. Verizon’s plan, for instance, requires purchase of a card for the laptop and won’t work with other devices.

The cell phone companies all feature horrendous ‘gotcha’s’ should you step outside their area into roaming territory.

I certainly don’t see cell phone companies being a part of the solution. They are a big part of the problem.

Just some info on how the Muni Wi-Fi metro mesh is evolving with Wi-Fi edge and Wi-Max back haul. Tropos now is partnering and integrating with Redline Communications in some serious high speed back haul and dual capable 802.11a-g / 802.16 networks.

On my last RV trip I used public libraries near state parks for my email. Most of the places I went did not even have phone service. Several commercial RV parks had free wireless but most you had to sigh up and pay a fee. Like airports each one had a different server.

Just my two cents, but my experience with free wifi spots (such as Panera Bread) is that free=slow. Somehow I had the expectations that it would be blindingly fast, but it poked along and stumbled like a dialup. Unfortunate that while I always advocate free wifi, appears there is a tradeoff. :/

Once again we see our illustrious mayor and city council stuck with its populist foot in its mouth. On one hand, they got a lot of mileage out of the concept of free or cheap citywide WiFi. On the other hand, this being a Houston city council, they were obliged to figure out some way of paying for it that didn’t look like new taxes and, more importantly, didn’t come out of their budget.

And now we get to see Mayor Bill trying to convince us that the dream isn’t dead. It reminds me of a very old joke. In this case, it’s EarthLink on the roof. (If you don’t get it go ask a relative of a certain age or do a search of jokes and the punchline ‘grandma is on the roof.’)

You have to figure San Francisco is relatively easy to cover at only 47 mi.². Chicago, with its 234 mi.² is a greater challenge, but it is longer than it is wide and that makes the job somewhat easier. Houston, on the other hand, a smallish, charming city of slightly over 600 mi.², is a whole ‘nother capital investment ballgame.

That’s a lot of ground to cover. A great deal of financial wherewithal will be needed to pay for it and there aren’t any real hard numbers on what the return on that investment is going to be or when it will be coming in.

It makes a lot of sense for EarthLink to try to figure out how to get out of it. I’m thinking $5 million is small change compared to what they might have lost if they’d gone through with it. I would not be surprised if EarthLink figured out a way to slink out of the picture entirely in the not-too-distant future.

From a strictly business and investment standpoint, it would be the smart thing to do.

Meanwhile, let’s cover the public buildings, the libraries, public areas, areas with government subsidized housing, the poorer neighborhoods with basic free access. We can probably do that for a lot less, and covering the lower in the socioeconomic scale means we might be able to get a federal grant to help pay for it. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to give those with the least ability to pay for it a technological hand.

Don’t forget that you can hook up most smartphones like a Sidekick directly to a laptop USB port and access the internet network, and speeds while slow are considerably faster than dialup. We have the T-Mobile MDA with the “total internet” plan, although for some reason we’re only paying $30 a month for it.

What about WiMax? Clearwire already launched that in Seattle and I believe Sprint will be bring that to Houston sometime soon. Isn’t it supposed to be alot faster than DSL and you can take it with you? I just think this whole citywide wifi infrastructure is a waste. Even before they launch it, there continues to be more and more options coming out that can make it a worthless endeavor.

[Full disclosure: I’m on Boingo’s payroll, so read the following with your eyes wide open!]

Dwight, thanks for the plug about Boingo but I want to clarify one important point: Our service is $21.95 for unlimited monthly access in North America — not $39. (While we do offer a product called Boingo Global for $39, the vast majority of our customers subscribe to Boingo Unlimited.)

And as long as I’m shilling for the company, let me add this: Unlike T-Mobile, whose Day Pass limits you to 24 hours of access in the airport, Boingo’s Day Pass gives you 24 hours of access across our network — not just the airport. That means you can use Boingo at participating hotels (over 14,000), bookstores (Barnes & Noble) coffee shops (Coffee Bean in the US and Starbucks outside the US) — or any of our more than 100,000 hotspots worldwide. Sure, I’m completely biased, but I think that’s a screaming deal. Okay, end of commercial — let the discussion continue!